Kevin Skinner Wins America’s Got Talent

By Adam at September 17th, 2009.

The Winner of AGT, Season Four is Kevin Skinner, the former Chicken Catcher from Kentucky. Skinner’s win was unsurprising based on how much he’d been hyped by judges. He also has a very modest attitude that in the era of Kanye West was quite appealing.

As the judges stated in the finals, Kevin didn’t have the greatest voice in the competition. Lawrence Beaman took that honor, but didn’t connect with Americans. And yes, Barbara Padilla, who finished second had a better voice, but America just chose an Opera skinner. Skinner might need vocal coaching, or perhaps he might need to get his nerves in check. His peak performance really was his audition without all the lights and magic of a big Hollywood performance. Write good songs for him in the Garth Brooks-style he’s most comfortable in and he can get a string of Gold Records.

The future is also bright for Barbara Padilla. Everyone who made the Final will have some opportunity. Voices of Glory could be big in the Christian Inspirational market, freed from the constraints of the show after finishing fifth. The Texas Tenors and Lawrence Beaman should get recording deals though not as sweet. Everyone else who made the top ten and maybe a couple who made the top 20 are going to have some lesser opportunities coming their way, and it’s going to be up to them what they do with it.

What does the show mean for America? When we were in Utah, we heard two callers on a talk show urged listeners to watch America’s Got Talent and vote for Utah-dance group, “The Fab Five.” My wife theorizes now that if Utahans couldn’t put the clogging sisters over the top, they won’t be able to put Mitt Romney over the top. Then again if the Fab Five could spend $40 million….

I digress. The big question for me as a viewer is whether I’ll be watching again next year.

The answer is no. It’s not because my favorites didn’t win. My favorites in the Finals finished 5th and we’ll be living a happy, well-adjusted life, with a nicer career than headlinging a Vegas show.

Rather, it’s a matter of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Respect for the audience and the acts that performed. This past season, Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent gave people the idea that they too could follow their dreams and show off their talent. Some of them were correctly dismissed from the show. I don’t have problems with buzzers and things of that sort.

When i say that the judges didn’t show respect, I’m talking about two things that are galling. The first was the deplorable Vegas Verdicts. I’m not mad that they didn’t have them all perform. However, it would have been nice to let the acts have some clue given that the past three seasons they did perform. When the acts heard, “You’re going to Las Vegas,” I doubt most thought that meant they were going to sit in a hotel room while the judges argued upstairs. And they certainly didn’t think it meant, “You’re going to Las Vegas to stand on the tarmac and then go home.”

The not performing part isn’t so bad in itself. On Britain’s Got Talent, they showed how to dispense the news in a way that was quick, fairly painless, and respectful. On BGT, they got to do the annoying suspense or false ending, “I’m afraid…you’ll just have to stay around a bit longer, you’re through to the next ground.” Bad news, and occassionally good news was dispensed to groups of performers. It took all of 8 minutes.

On AGT, this same process took two 44-minute episodes as the judges decided to turn sleezy and exploitative, putting acts in face off mode, two magicians again one another, two musical instrument players that had become friends against one another in order to get the emotional explosion or breakdown required.

Then there were little things that occurred during the show’s filming. There was the judge’s criticism of acts that varied from the one trick the judges had pegged them at. Dancer Arcadian Broad played the piano as part of an energetic dance routine and Piers Morgan chewed his ear off. One of the most talented dance couples on the show dared to do a different routine and the judges complained about not seeing a 120-pound woman lift a 250-pound man for the third time.

Kari Callin, who was left on the runway is debating whether to audition in Vegas and writes, “So the big question is: do I really want to deal with the B.S.?” For many performers, the answer is no. Lots of people get opportunity to sing, and even record a CD without “making it big.” I know of a Gospel Quartet in the Boise area that’s eeked out a modest living that way. I’ve been in concerts in the park with wonderful talent. It may not be glamorous, but there are some part-time careers in entertainment that provide less aggrevation and can be more rewarding personally, even if financially, it’s not as big as AGT. And honestly, if 15 people of the tens of thousands who auditioned getting anything out of the experience, that would be quite high. There’s far more dignity in making it small.

As a viewer, I’ve got to ask that question as well. Piers Morgan was heard saying that, “We’re the judges and we can do whatever we want.” Yes, you can, but when the rules of the game are 1) changed without notice, 2) never explained, and 3) thrown out the window when inconvenient, it really isn’t fair to viewers. Of course, the argument goes that this brings drama to the show, but not in a good way.

A 9th Inning Home Run to win the game, and the Umpires deciding to call players that are out safe both create drama, however one is positive, and the other is not. Over at the AGT Examiner, Michael Ross is calling for the judges to be fired, but there’s no way they start throwing judges overboard on a show that was number 1 throughout the Summer.

While I became involved with the acts that I saw and wanted to follow their stories, next year is another year with fresh auditions full of new strangers. However, I won’t be watching because the audience and the talent deserve more respect than AGT is willing to give.

I’m a viewer, and after all…

I can do whatever I like.

Tags: America's Got Talent, Barbara Padilla, Kevin Skinner